College coach from Md. mourned after weekend bus crash

A moving church service for a popular college lacrosse coach who died over the weekend left many people wiping away tears, but also waiting for more answers about the bus crash that killed her and her unborn child.

Amid an ongoing police investigation, students and teachers at Seton Hill University outside Pittsburgh said they're still wondering why the team bus suddenly left the road Saturday.

"It's a tough one, because this is really not a university, this is a family," he said of the crash's impact on the small Catholic university.

Players and coaches from Seton Hill were among 23 people aboard when the bus crashed into a tree Saturday morning on the Pennsylvania Turnpike outside Harrisburg. The team was headed to an afternoon game at Millersville University, about 50 miles from the crash site in central Pennsylvania.

Head lacrosse coach Kristina Quigley, 30, of Greensburg, died from her injuries at a hospital, Cumberland County authorities said. Quigley was about six months pregnant, and her unborn son didn't survive. The bus driver, Anthony Guaetta, 61, of Johnstown, died at the scene. Police couldn't immediately say what caused the crash.

At a 65-minute memorial service Sunday night, somber athletes, students and school staff hugged and cried in a century-old chapel on the campus, where Quigley was remembered as warm, outgoing and a natural leader.

The service program read "In Loving Memory of Kristina Quigley and Son."

The ornate chapel with 20-foot high stained-glass windows depicting biblical scenes, marble columns, and arched ceilings, echoed with biblical readings and songs, followed by prayers and sermons.

The Rev. Jeremiah O'Shea reminded those in attendance of their own mortality by asking, "Aren't we all so helpless in the face of death?" He said the school mourns Quigley "with great sadness in our hearts but with hope for her eternal salvation."

Greensburg Bishop Lawrence Brandt told students and staff that he shared in their loss and sorrow.

"It's numbing," said sophomore K. T. Dimmick, of Rochester, N.Y., who was friends with some members of the team. "There's really no words for it. It's the simple fact that she was pregnant."

Some members of the women's lacrosse team, wearing their team jerseys, walked down the aisle during the service, holding hands and fighting back tears. They were joined at the service by members of the school's track, basketball and baseball teams. Some students wiped away tears, while most were somber and quiet through the service.

Morocco said Quigley made an impact in the two years she was at the school.

"In the short time she was here, she was really a sincere person who always used coaching to touch kids," he said. "Often, that is so missed."

Morocco said that the school's mission is to take a student and develop their soul.

"She did that," he said. "What she gave those girls is going to outlast this."

Quigley, a native of Dundalk, Md., was married and had a young son, Gavin, according to the school. No members of her family spoke at the service.

"It's just unbelievable this had to happen," family friend Phil Kondilas said.

In the Dundalk neighborhood, along Conley Street where she Quigley grew up, Kondilas remembers the young girl who played with his children and become a college lacrosse coach.

"I just seen her recently because her brother got married. It was good times and all and now for this to happen, it's just why does it happen, you know?" Kondilas said.

"The family is just wonderful. It just makes me feel so sad," Tom Pless said.

Pless recalled Quigley and her two brothers. He is the technology department chair at Dundalk High School. He said she was strong both in academics and athletics.

"Someone that would go out of her way to make sure the job was done correctly and she was just all into sports and we kind of talked about that every once in a while," Pless said.

"She was a very athletic girl obviously since she ended up being a college coach so she was very interested in sports. She was a very nice, friendly, outgoing girl, very interested in her academics, always had good grades," librarian Pamela Cline said.

Quigley was on the dean's list and was named Dundalk female athlete of the year in 2001. For the next two years, she played lacrosse at Duquesne University while earning a degree in education.

Quigley's former neighbor says not only did she love lacrosse, she loved coaching too.

A small memorial to the coach and team sprouted in front of a lacrosse net on a field next to the university's baseball complex earlier Sunday. With the baseball players practicing in the background on a cold day, students and other mourners visited the memorial that featured bouquets of flowers, stuffed animals, a lacrosse stick, a whistle and a candle in front of a team photo and signs reading "In memoriam -- Kristina Quigley -- Forever a Griffin."

Members of the baseball team and fans observed a minute of silence for the two crash victims before their game.

The Catholic liberal arts school of about 2,500 students on 200 wooded acres atop a hill overlooking was plunged into mourning when word of the crash reached campus Saturday. The school is offering grief counseling to students.

Two victims flown to Penn State Hershey Medical Center remained there Sunday, and no official information was released. Amanda Michalski, from the Minneapolis suburb of Coon Rapids, is a freshman attacker. She is one of the players taken to the medical center. Her lacrosse coach at Coon Rapids High School, Jeff DeJoy, tells the St. Paul Pioneer Press that her parents, Gary and Gretchen Michalski, are now with her. He said he hasn't been able to confirm the extent of her injuries.

Another woman injured in the crash was discharged Sunday afternoon from another hospital. All others aboard the bus were taken to hospitals as a precaution, but almost all were treated and released.

The front side of the bus, which was towed from the scene Saturday night, was shorn away, and the vehicle came to rest upright about 70 yards from the highway at the bottom of a grassy slope. A police investigation is continuing.

The bus operator, Mlaker Charter & Tours, of Davidsville, Pa., is up to date on its inspections, which include bus and driver safety checks, said Jennifer Kocher, a spokeswoman for the state Public Utility Commission, which regulates bus companies.

The agency's motor safety inspectors could think of no accidents or violations involving the company that would raise a red flag, she said, though complete safety records were not available Saturday.

On Tuesday, another bus carrying college lacrosse players from a Vermont team was hit by a sports car that spun out of control on a wet highway in upstate New York, sending the bus toppling onto its side, police said. One person in the car died.

Copyright 2013 by WBALTV.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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